3 Compelling Reasons to Outsource IT Support

It is no secret that IT staffs are not usually large teams. In a recent report from Spiceworks, it was found that the average size of an IT staff was 4.2 people. Broken down by company size, the numbers show that where there are more than 500 employees, the average size was 11.9 workers. Companies that employ 250 to 499 people had, on average, 4.8 people providing IT support, while those under 250 had fewer than three. Yet while IT expenditures are always increasing, hiring is not. In fact, the same report shows that a majority of companies are keeping their IT staff at the same levels or reducing them.

The shift in spending comes from companies relying more on managed IT support services because of the immediate benefits that they gain from outsourcing much of this work.

1. Experienced and qualified workers

The days of an IT worker acting as a jack-of-all-trades are long gone. With technology growing more complex, and a greater focus on security, it is important to have IT support staff who are not only trained in specific technologies, but also have hands-on experience with those technologies.

When one configuration error could leak your company’s intellectual property, expose customer financial data, or take critical business systems offline, you want to be sure that your IT staff has the right training and the experience to eliminate mistakes. Outsourcing your IT support means that you have highly trained people who have the required experience to handle the complexities that are common in modern-day technology when you need them.

2. Control costs

Hiring and training IT support staff is not only expensive, but it is time-consuming. Having to hire employees with specialized skill sets in different hardware, software, networking, and security technologies winds up costing a great deal of money in salaries and training to keep their skills up to date. Not only that, but managers are then pulled away for interviews, onboarding, and other tasks necessary to bring in newly hired staff.

In addition to these costs, there are also the costs associated with attrition. As IT support workers gain more skills and experience, their value increases. If you are unable to meet their growing salary demands, there is a good chance that they will move on to an employer that can afford to pay them more, starting the cycle all over again. By outsourcing IT support, you have personnel at the ready in order to assist with any number of needs. Better still, they have been vetted by their employer, so there is little need to investigate their skills and background.

3. Implementation speed

Something that often stalls new IT projects is the lack of time and resources that are required. Handling the implementation of a new system or application in house could delay things for months as you wait for other projects to be completed and train or hire the right staff.

Relying on outsourced IT support gives you the means to start up new projects when you are ready. Once you meet with your project manager, your partner can provide you with the temporary staff you need in order to implement your project without having to wait.

Running a business means relying on technology to get things done. Without the right people serving in your IT support roles, you put business processes, security, and compliance at risk. Avoiding this starts with making sure the right people are in place.